Maps record geographical or urban features of a landscape, and can be conveniently printed on paper which may be folded to a compact size for easy portability and reference. In other words, features in maps correspond to features in terrain via a mapping. Such a mapping may comprise a scale. By consulting a map a person is enabled to discover aspects of her surroundings that may not be obvious by surveying the surroundings visually. Examples of such aspects may include elevation, nearby buildings, nearby streets, public transport connections and municipal or international borders.
Industrial plants may be mapped to a functional map, such that the functional map comprises features that are relevant to an industrial process run in the plant. In detail, the functional map may have represented therein process phases in such a way that a skilled person consulting the functional map can learn features of the process. A functional map may have active components, such as warning lights and/or audible warning signals, arranged to provide dynamic information of current process parameters, such as temperature and/or pressure, for example.
Interacting with data may be accomplished via an operating system, such as the Linux operating system, wherein a user may input, using a keyboard, textual commands into a command window displayed on a screen device. Responsive to the textual commands, the operating system may perform operations on data, which may be stored on data files. For example, data files may be copied, moved, archived or compressed in dependence of the textual commands input by the user.
Some operating systems, such as Windows, feature a virtual desktop with icons representing programs, files and folders. Using a pointing device, such as for example a computer mouse, a user may activate, delete or move the icons to cause the operating system to take actions the user wishes. Operating systems may provide audio signals, such as beeps, to communicate to users, for example of error conditions.